Media depositories are used to receive media items from a customer. One common type of media depository is a sheet media depository for receiving items of media in sheet form. For example, such items of media can be currency notes, checks, tickets, giros or the like.
Sheet media depositories are used in automated teller machines (ATMs) and other self-service terminals. Other such self-service terminals are vending machines, change machines or the like. The sheet media depositories are used to identify, validate and store or return deposited sheets.
Some sheet depositories are capable of receiving a bunch of sheets in a loading area and then picking individual sheets from the bunch so that each sheet can then be identified and validated individually prior to storage of the validated sheet within a depository or returned to a customer. These depositories are sometimes referred to as bunch sheet depositories. Bunch sheet depositories may transport the bunch from a loading area to a picking area or the picking area may be adjacent to the loading area.
It is desirable to provide bunch sheet depositories that can accept a large bunch of sheet items. However, when a large bunch of items has to be returned to a customer, there is a tendency for sheets within the bunch to splay out prior to reaching a dispatch area. The splaying out can cause failure of the machinery if the splaying effect becomes too pronounced. Also, a bunch returned to a customer may be unattractive.
Furthermore, some customers will only insert a small number of sheet items. For example, such as one currency note or a few checks and notes into the bunch sheet depository whereas other customers will insert up to a maximum permissible number of sheets. Most prior art depositories have a maximum bunch allowed of up to fifty items of media. This occasionally unduly limits the transactions which can take place.